Apple Sells A Million Songs in Debut Week [Slashdot]. Dive into Slashdot for the discussion. This is what the Apple press release has to say (along with noting 110,000 new iPods went out the door in a week -- that whooshing sound you just heard...): "Over half of the songs were purchased as albums, dispelling concerns that selling music on a per-track basis will destroy album sales. In addition, over half of the 200,000 songs offered on the iTunes Music Store were purchased at least once." Interesting! As for me, I bought a couple of songs and two albums; bookmarked some others to come back and get in the near future.

4:58:02 PM  #   your two cents []

No doubt this will cause furious defense-blogging in the blogosphere (as an amusing bit of bait-blogging -- blog-baiting? -- how can I resist throwing it out there? [grin]). Here's a snippet from that link, a longer piece in which writer William Gibson blogged a few days ago on blogging v. writing (as he puts it in blunt, oppositional terms):

Blogging seems to me to be as undemanding an activity, however congenial, as "writing" is demanding. Blogging is conversational, literally informal, and seldom even comes close to engaging the compositional gear-train required for even a brief essay, let alone for an extended work of prose fiction.

At the risk (or in hope) of causing annoyance (hee!), I must say I fully agree. That's one of the reasons I enjoy blogging -- the informality. I struggle infinitely more with writing that is going to print than going to blog. Infinitely. Blogging lets me have conversations -- or more realistically, throw out my ideas and interests and peeves -- to a wide group of people (only a teensy weensy fraction of blog readers ever respond via comments, even on the really big blog sites, so a blog is hardly a real conversation -- more a lecture in which the audience can answer back if it likes). The joy of blogging is its informality. It also very definitely is a drain on time and energy. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it, or value it as a key part of my regular writing. But it takes commitments that aren't necessarily conducive to other, more considered work. It's always tempting to throw out the quick response, rather than dive into the involved consideration, or to offer a kind of shorthand for the involved consideration, which you think you might get back to, but usually don't. The more considered response no longer engages you in the same urgent way because you've semi-addressed it. And that becomes good enough. Is there a resolution? For some writers, no, there clearly isn't.

4:33:41 PM  #   your two cents []

Bars: A patron's guide. "As a bartender, I have experienced all sorts of customers.  The good ones and the terrible ones, usually in the same shift.  The terrible customers are uncommon, and the good ones are even less common.  The normal customers unfortunately tend to be closer to bad customers than good customers.  I present to you a guide for making your experience at a bar more pleasant." [kuro5hin.org]
11:47:20 AM  #   your two cents []

Heh!: Children at the Technology Helm. Ineptitude afflicts parents who cede the role of the household's chief technology officer to their offspring.  [New York Times: Technology]
11:45:56 AM  #   your two cents []

 Photo gallery from Japan: Dogs wearing ridiculous hats. "Geisha Asobi points us to this image collection (and online store) of wacky hats for dogs, called chonmage. The exceedingly patient pets in these snapshots impersonate everything from sushi rolls to monkeys to eggplants. Guaranteed to make you smile." Link, Discuss [Boing Boing Blog]
11:42:57 AM  #   your two cents []

New Technique Could Stem Spread of Altered Genes From GM Crops: "Scientists have engineered a strain of GM plant that propagates successfully on its own, but cannot mix with non-GM plants." [Scientific American]
11:41:37 AM  #   your two cents []

Paris, The City Of Wi-Fi? [Slashdot]
11:40:10 AM  #   your two cents []

Had a great conversation with a friend's seven-year-old yesterday, who has decided he needs to be very rich so he can have lots of holidays and visit lots of countries. Being a millionaire was discussed, then being a billionaire. He then announced he'd be a google-aire instead -- or maybe that was googol-aire -- not sure if he meant to make squillions from an involvement with Google, or have mathematically unimaginably large amounts of money. He added, 'Then I'd probably need a highly-paid lawyer' -- a phrase we found he'd learned from, where else, the Simpsons (Mr Burns apparently has 10 'highly-paid lawyers'). Heh! He also suggested he might invent a huge machine that would chase all the Russians into Asia, so he could then sell Russia to the Americans. Put that boy at the right hand of Donald Rumsfeld!
11:39:05 AM  #   your two cents []

A Once and Present Innovator, Still Pushing Buttons. If anyone is up to the task of cracking the market for small businesses online, it is Dan Bricklin, who has spent most of his career as an entrepreneurial small-businessman. [New York Times: Technology] ... Mr Visicalc! Bricklin has a weblog here.

10:42:50 AM  #   your two cents []

On the Web, Without Wasting Time. Small businesses that want to build a Web site will find that doing so is easier than in the pioneering mid-90's. [New York Times: Technology]
10:38:31 AM  #   your two cents []

No Big Brother: ICT Ireland, the tech industry body, has come out today in strong opposition to the Irish government's proposed data retention bill, which would see telecommunications companies forced to hold three years' worth of Irish people's and business's email, landline, mobile, fax and web surfing traffic data. The suggested three year period is one of the longest proposed retention periods in the world, and -- disgracefully -- has actually already been imposed on the Irish people as of a year ago, through a secret Cabinet direction, giving Ireland the unhappy distinction of being the only western democracy with an active data retention law. The US, which has pushed such measures in Europe, does not impose data retention on its own population -- not least because of extremely strong opposition from US business. Though the retention bill is being mulled over within the Irish Department of Justice, there's still no sign of a bill. It has been through around half a dozen drafts, though, say sources. Even senior sources within other government departments -- who confirm that they are eyeing this bill nervously and are concerned that it will decimate Ireland's competitive position as a key European technology base and as a business base overall -- have no idea when Justice will actually bring a bill forward.

My own guess is soon. Time is running out to get a bill through its preliminary stages if the Minister intends to meet his proclaimed timetable of having a law on the books by autumn. The Department may feel that opposition to such a bill has faded since it was first revealed in November. But just wait til it is published. The Irish and multinational businesses I talk to are waiting to have something concrete to go after. ICT Ireland clearly feels the Department is close to publishing something.

Jamie Smyth's written up a story here today on the ICT Ireland stance [sub only]. An excerpt:

A new law that would compel telecoms firms to capture and retain a range of data including phone call and emails for three years would hurt commerce, an industry lobby group has said.

ICT Ireland, a lobby group which represents the technology industry, said yesterday that proposed legislation being drawn up by the Department of Justice would undermine competitiveness in the technology sector.

It would also raise serious privacy issues that could harm consumer confidence in advanced technologies, the technology lobby group said in a statement.

10:37:13 AM  #   your two cents []

Co-op passes up £4m to maintain ethics. The Co-operative Bank turned away more than £4m of business last year from companies which failed to meet its ethical standards. [Guardian Unlimited]
10:12:04 AM  #   your two cents []

According to Wired News, a medical researcher named Dan Burnett has come up with a diet pill that expands to a 1-inch ball in the stomach. After 7 days, the stomach full of polymer balls keeps a weight-watcher feeling full. Notes Wired: "Each capsule is designed to degrade in the stomach in about a week, so patients would have a steady rotation of Burnett's pills in their stomachs." Ech! The pill/balls could be approved for human use in under a year.
10:10:54 AM  #   your two cents []